Speak the Truth
by Acute Delirium
Summary: Kloppman and embroidered messages.


_**Speak the Truth**_

In summer of 1885, Earnest Kloppman lost everything.

It was Hiram who went first, leaving behind the properties scattered through New York that he had inherited from their father. More money than Earnest knew what to do with, except buy Frances some thread. But in the summer of 1885, his Frances was too ill to embroider as she used to, and only two weeks after he lost Hiram, he lost Frances. Alice left soon after, to the women's university that Earnest could finally send her to, now that he needed her most.

In the end Earnest sold all the property. He was getting old and couldn't manage all that. Even with the small wealth he had fallen into, Earnest continued to live frugally. His only extravagance was framed embroidered sentiments. _Ask And The World Will Give. _Frances had been trying to make an embroidered pillow when she died, but had never started the inscription. Earnest was sure that if he had enough framed embroidery, he would eventually have the words his Frances had wanted to write. _Love Conquers All. _But as the walls filled, Earnest began feeling as though the words began cloying at him, telling him that he would never find what his wife meant to say. _Polite Voices Send Clear Messages_

Earnest avoided his home, with its emptiness drowning in words. He didn't like the company of men, finding them too coded and expectant. He chose to walk, from six in the morning until he ended up at home. _Bless the Day. _For the first time he noticed the newsies, so much younger than his own daughter and seemingly more fragile—no matter how loud they shouted the headlines. _Words Are Power. _

Sometimes Earnest would sit in the park and watch the boy with only one arm. Watching him squint in the sun, smile at the young women passing by and tapping the toe of his scuffed shoe. These boys, Earnest realized, were just as real as his Alice. He knew from the newspapers that these boys were alone in the world, and often were criminals. _Justice Brings Truth. _But Earnest just saw children, who needed something more than a life being passed as if they were invisible thousands of times a day.

It was winter 1890 when Earnest realized what he could do to help these boys. He walked up to the boy with only one arm and asked him where he and the other boys stayed at night.

"Gimme a dime," the boy demanded.

Earnest gave him a dime. "Now gimme a quarter and I'll tell you." _Generosity Brings Rewards. _Earnest gave it to him.

"Forty Nine Park Place. Fella in charge just kicked, perfect time for a leech like yourself," the boy with one arm said, blinking quickly. Earnest did not know what it meant for a man to have kicked. Nor did he know what the boy meant by leech, but he was rather sure he wasn't one. _Actions Make The Man. _Rather than correct the boy, he simply walked away from the boy with one arm, turning the address over in his head.

49 Park Place.

The next morning he walked for three hours to 49 Park Place, brown leather suitcases in his hands. The suitcases slowed his trip, but Earnest was confident he would make it there before the kicked man in charge had his lunch. Earnest walked with urgency, hardly seeing anything but the sidewalk at his feet. He has somewhere to go. _Journey To Truth._

He didn't knock when he arrived to 49 Park Place. He simply walked in because men on missions needn't wait to give. He looked around at the bare walls, glad to see that he needed to be filled.

A short woman in a black dress came around from behind a desk. "Are you here about the job?" she inquired, eyeing the suitcases in Earnest's hands with a wry smile. "I see you are confident about your prospects."

Earnest was momentarily derailed, for this was not how he had planned his gift. He tried to pick up without her lines. "I have brought gifts for the children."

The woman sighed. "We always appreciate donations."

This was more what Earnest had planned. He put the suitcases on the desk, his arms shaking from the effort. He wasn't a young man anymore. Earnest hadn't lifted the first latch before the woman interrupted. "It is a rather difficult time here. My husband has just passed and we are rather desperate for someone to take over."

Earnest took his hands off the suitcase. "Take over?"

The woman nodded. "I can't handle these boys on my own. Even if I desired to, it simply isn't done."

Earnest ran his hand over the worn suitcase, thinking of the words they contained._ Actions Speak Louder Than Words._

"How would one take over?"

* * *

><p>In the end, Earnest only hung one of the embroidered messages. After dinner a small child followed him and watched him nail the frame up. "What's it say?" the boy asked.<p>

"Speak the Truth."

The boy solemnly looked at the frame, mouthing the words he couldn't read. "Does you hangin' it mean we gotta tell the truth?"

Earnest considered how to answer this. He would tell Alice that the only life to live was a truthful life. But this boy was not Alice.

"Only when you can Racetrack. Do what you can."


End file.
